Tag Archives: France

“Freeze this moment a little bit longer. Make each impression a little bit stronger.”Â ~ Rush

I love to travel and any place I visit is open game as a story setting.Â I often take photos to remember the details of a place and to jog my memory of the sensory bits that add realism to a description.

This first photo was taken from Notre Dame in Paris.Â In case you’re wondering, the buses and trailers were part of a production set for the TV series Highlander with Adrian Paul.Â Looking at this, I remember how incredibly cold it was.Â The wind blew along the river with a ferocity that cut through my coat and several layers of sweaters. The water smelled pas fraisÂ as it swirled in eddys along the wall.

The images and memories formed a basis for the setting of WIRED which begins and ends in Paris.Â The final scene takes place on the bridge in the distance.Â Â There are also scenes that take you into the catacombs underneath the city and introducesÂ another side of ParisÂ usually not mentioned in the tour guides.Â For those locations, I relied on research and discoveredÂ there’s a French Police unit that patrols the underground keeping peace and deterring criminal behavior.Â Photos become valuable tools for writing and enhances your ability to convey mood and let the setting take on its own character role.

The second photo is a church yard in England, but my memory is faulty on the exact location.Â I’m thinking it may be in Suffolk. I do recall the church was well over 1,000 years old and was marred by medieval graffiti on the ancient floor tiles.Â Â This will be in the follow-upÂ novel to WIREDÂ which has the working title Persistence ofÂ Time.

Now that the digital age is upon us, I snap photos constantly with my phone, trying to capture fleeting moments and emotions I can use later.

I also freeze bits of time by being completely present in the moment and noting everything around me. Each time I’ve done this, I’ve been able to laterÂ recall details that would have likely gone unnoticed… such as Ray Davies changing his wrist watch mid concert in 1983 orÂ a woman in a black sweaterÂ doing yoga in Russell Square while a breeze blew spray from the fountain across the stone walk (2007).

By adding realism and sensory detail, your readers will be able to escape into your writing. Photos help me make time stand still long enough to share it with you.